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Andris Nelson’s repeated fast upward flicks of the baton were disquieting to watch.

Three great and contrasting works from different centuries, in superlative performances; a surprising programme with a real touch of alchemy.

John Wilson was constantly persuading the orchestra to dig deep and to unearth the riches and miracles in the orchestral writing.

Violist Berit Cardas' smiles seemed to sum up the lightness, the exuberance of the Vertavo quartet as they tripped with grace and astonishing technical assurance through four Haydn quartets.

With Damrau, one hears every word and her account of Strauss' Four Last Songs was memorable. 

Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring in one evening: superb, unforgettable storytelling.

Kings Place's "Cello Unwrapped" series is a major, year-long celebration of the instrument. It consists of a no fewer than 51 events spread throughout the year, with everything from films to sessions on buying – and even making – instruments.

An intensely musical and thought-provoking Beethoven recital at Wigmore Hall from Matthias Goerne and Kristian Bezuidenhout.

A magical, brilliantly conceived programme of Byrd, Tallis and Arvo Pärt

Bach, Biber, St. John's Smith Square. Clever juxtapositions, and they worked. The programmer of this concert - by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Solists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner - had a neat thought, to place Bach's six Motets (BWV 225-230) into the former church in SW1. The building and the motets date from the same decade, the 1720's.

Neither Prokofiev nor Dutilleux is a exactly a failsafe at the box office, and the combination of both - and a rainy afternoon - left quite a few seats unclaimed at last night's Prom by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.Which was a shame.

Who has the power, the authority to fix the moment when a major public event can start? In broadcast events, such as the Proms, where all of the concerts are broadcast on Radio 3 and many are televised, the bigger, virtual audience puts the media in the driving seat. The radio or TV producer holds sway - up to the moment when the conductor steps out into the hall.

Michael Ierace's piano recital last night in Linton, Cambridgeshire was revelatory. That adjective is perhaps devalued through overuse, but this young Australian pianist's playing does indeeed reveal the strong, the beautiful, and the unexpected in music one might believe one already knows.

There are the knowns. The things, as Rumsfeld would have it, that we know that we know. Like the way the Aurora orchestra can bring sheer youthful exuberance to a fast piece like the G Major presto finale to the symphony No.27 which ended the first half of last night's all-Mozart concert at Kings Place. Aurora don't just survive at these breakneck tempi, they absolutely thrive on them.

The programme had been changed. No Montsalvatge, but this gave space for a lovely performance of Grieg's varied and characterful Haugtussa (Maid of the Mountain) cycle. Both performers had clearly worked at it intently, and took us with great authority through its twists and turns. The Larsson songs must be some of the strangest lyrics ever set.

Let’s talk about love. Magdalena Kožená’s ‘Lettere Amorose' will be touring Europe from now until just after Valentine’s Day. Yes, love, because anyone imagining that the subject matter of these songs from the early seventeenth century will be sweetness or light (or for that matter chocolates or lingerie) will be severely disappointed.Handle with care.

How tempting it can be for the aficionado of German Lieder to stay at home and never to go to concerts. He (yes, it is normally a he rather than a she) can retreat into his LP and CD collection, and convince himself that the great recordings of a Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau or an Elisabeth Schwarzkopf cannot be surpassed.

Recital of songs/ arias by Britten/ Bellini/ Donizetti/ Schubert/ DebussyLouise Kemeny brings a level of intellect and thoughtfulness to sung texts which is probably unique among young singers. She has to her name both a Masters degree in renaissance literature, and a scholarly article about newly-installed Oxford Poetry Professor Geoffrey Hill.

The Holywell Music Room in Oxford, with its bright and reverberant sound, was purpose-built as a concert hall, and opened in 1748. To hear four experienced and top-class singers last night, all of whom were able to work the specifics of this unique and historic room, to sing to it and use it as their instrument, was sheer joy.

In a recent interview, BBC Radio 3 Controller Roger Wright was asked "What music would you want played at your funeral?" His reply: "Spanish guitar music, because I wouldn’t be there to hear it. If you ask my colleagues they’d say Spanish guitar music is one of my blind spots."Full marks to Wright for laying his cards on the table, perhaps.

The internet makes it simple for the mind's ear to travel. A click to this page on Bachtrack and you're right there: in the Dvorak Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, listening to the Czech Philharmonic. Hearing that orchestra play away from home, in the Royal Albert Hall, one loses something - a lot of the instrumental detail inevitably drifts off into the hall.

This is Jamie Cullum 's year. As the Proms announcer told the Royal Albert Hall crowd, with 4.5 million album sales, the 31-year old is the most successful young British jazz musician ever. He worked recently with Clint Eastwood. He's been touring a new album extensively with a new band. Oh yes, and he got married (*).

Valery Gergiev 's right hand flutters and shimmers. From a distance, the gesture seems unreadable. But, as one member of the LSO told me, "We don't understand how he communicates. But we always know what he wants us to do."There was a time when Gergiev's appearances in London were rare. Each concert was a revelation and a sensation.

Bach's Brandenburg concerto No. 3 (BWV 1048) doesn't have a slow movement. In the place where you would normally expect to find one, what's written out is just two chords. And in most modern performances, those chords get a perfunctory embellishment, a quick bit of a cadenza, and on we go. That's the shape in which the piece now sits in the classical canon, so nobody expects more than that.

Modigliani Quartet - HaydnString Quartet in B flat Op. 76 No. 4 'Sunrise' String Quartet in G Op. 77 No. 1 The Quatuor Amedeo Modigliani - Philippe Bernhard, and Loïc Rio, violins, Laurent Marfaing,viola and François Kieffer, 'cello -comes garlanded with prizes.

Royal Academy of Music Chamber Ensemble Trevor Pinnock conductor Runette Botha sopranoHaydn (arr. Salomon) Symphony Quintetto (after Symphony No. 101 The Clock) for flute, string quartet and piano (ed. Christopher Hogwood)Mahler (arr. Stein) Symphony No. 4 in GThis was quite simply a delightful concert. The juxtaposition of these two pared-down symphonies was a brilliant idea superbly executed.